World | India
Poor turn to private schools
The crisis in the Indian educational system is prompting poor families to pull children out of free government schools and enrol them in the private sector at an unprecedented pace, according to an independent study released yesterday.
- By Jo Johnson, Financial Times
- Published: 00:00 January 13, 2007
- Image Credit: Reuters
- Schoolchildren use a cycle rickshaw to return from school in the eastern city of Kolkata.
New Delhi: The crisis in the Indian educational system is prompting poor families to pull children out of free government schools and enrol them in the private sector at an unprecedented pace, according to an independent study released yesterday.
The emergence in slums and villages of private schools that charge near-destitute families between $1-$3 (Dh3.67-Dh11) a month for basic primary education is regarded as an indictment of the state's ability to provide a traditionally core service.
The shift to the private sector, where teachers are more accountable, has been dramatic. Eight states now have more than 30 per cent of children in non-government-run schools and a further 10 states with between 15-30 per cent in private education.
Pratham, the non-government organisation that produced the 2006 Annual Status of Education Report (Aser), said the findings should prompt close questioning of whether India could expect a "demographic dividend" from a poorly educated workforce.
While enrollment in primary education is high, with 95 per cent of 7-10-year-olds and 91 per cent of 11-14 year olds in school - the proportion that can read a simple passage of text or do elementary arithmetic is significantly lower.
The Aser recorded a big shift towards private education in 2006, with five states registering an increase of more than five percentage points in the proportion of children receiving non-government schooling.
"In recent years, there has been much discussion about the age profile of the Indian population, with great focus on its youth," said Madhav Chavan, Pratham's director of Programmes.
"But while this significant proportion of young people represents an emerging market for business, it is frightening to think of many of them reaching maturity without acquiring basic literacy and numeracy skills," Chavan said.
Teacher absenteeism is rampant in government schools. A 2004 study by Harvard University's Michael Kremer found 25 per cent of teachers were absent from school, during unannounced visits by researchers, and only about half were teaching.
Absence rates varied from 15 per cent in Maharashtra to 42 per cent in Jharkhand, with higher rates concentrated in the poorer states.
Pratham found that significantly more boys than girls were being pulled out of state education for private tuition.
Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of India's Planning Commission, who released the study, said it would be a "very important input into policy formation" ahead of the government's next five-year plan.
The report will fuel concerns about growing skills shortages in India at a time when recruiters in the information technology industry and several other industries are finding raw graduate numbers a misleading measure of employable talent.
NIIT, the country's largest private IT training company, said this week it would hold a nationwide IT aptitude test in 130 cities on January 21 that would provide prospective employers with a list of "promising IT professionals".
The report, a follow-up to a similar study undertaken by Pratham in 2005, was based on tests given to 758,000 children and 313,000 mothers in more than 15,000 villages between October and Nov-ember 2006.
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